Insurance for your dog?

[mrcreole]

Do any of you purchase insurance on your dogs? If so what have been your experiences.....Would you recommend?

Many thanks....Mike

[vabrittfan]

I just recently purchased it for my new pup. Wishing dearly I had purchased it for my last dog as we spent nearly $1,000 diagnosing him with IMHA & probably could have spent more had I known I had insurance that would help with the testing & not having to be so frugal knowing I would have to beg, borrow, & plead to get the money.

Never had it in the past because with multiple dogs it was cost prohibitive but the youngest pup will be the only dog pretty soon (others are senior and/orvery sick) & feel I can afford it for one. That & vet bills are getting so expensive.

And yes you can save money in a savings account instead of paying premiums (just like you can do for your own health insurance), but what happens when 1 or 2 incidents happen back to back & wipe it out too fast for you to save? The same time I was spending nearly $1,000 diagnosing one dog with IMHA I spent nearly $500 fighting pancreatitis with another dog & then my old Britt decided he wanted to start vomiting. I've told them over & over again only one sick at a time please but they don't listen.

I spent months researching companies when I didn't buy insurance for my IMHA dog & sadly because of that I can't get him a policy with any company other than for accidents because they consider not just the IMHA to be pre-existing but any other illnesses because the IMHA compromises his immune system which makes him more likely to have other problems. (for example he was just diagnosed with hyperthyroidism through to be secondary to the IMHA)

Just my .02 but I have 11 years experience in human health insurance so I really knew what I was looking for when I looked for a policy & most of the plans available don't cover any type of illness considered to be hereditary or congenital which pretty much counts out a lot of the diseases that Brittanys are prone to. (HD, PRA, lens luxation, etc) Also a lot of plans didn't cover any health issues related to breeding your dogs etc

I finally ended up with Pet Plan USA. I went for the Gold Plan with $200 deductible & 80% coinsurance for up to $20,000 yearly maximum. They have a Bronze & Silver Plan also but it was only a $1 or $2 difference a month. I'm paying roughly $20/month for the coverage. Now I will probably have the healthiest Brittany I've ever owned but if that's the case the $20/month is well worth it to me. However, this pup likes to chew electrical cords & puts everything in her mouth so I thought it was better to err on the side of caution than wish I had purchased it like with our other dog.

If you want to PM me for information about all the companies I researched I would be happy to share my info with you as I have about a 2" stack of notes/pages I printed as I was doing my comparisions.

[ezzy333]

You mean they aren't covered with our new Obamacare? I knew it wasn't as good as he tried to convince us it was. I guess it's OK but rather hard to justify for the average dog I think when the coverage quite limited, premiums quite high, co-pays quite high, and catastophic illiness or accidents quite limited. Now if I have a dog that is being used at stud a couple of times a month it might be a different situation. But you have to remember the insurance companies are making money by charging more that they pay out.

Ezzy

[vabrittfan]

You mean they aren't covered with our new Obamacare? I knew it wasn't as good as he tried to convince us it was. I guess it's OK but rather hard to justify for the average dog I think when the coverage quite limited, premiums quite high, co-pays quite high, and catastophic illiness or accidents quite limited. Now if I have a dog that is being used at stud a couple of times a month it might be a different situation. But you have to remember the insurance companies are making money by charging more that they pay out.

Ezzy

Heck if I could add my dogs to my HMO coverage I would be thrilled. I pay $25 for an office visit which covers any labwork/testing & x-rays done at the doctor's office. Last time I took a dog to the vet for a simple UTI which we didn't even test but he suspected cost me $82!

I agree with most of what you said & it actually is true of most of the insurance companies I reviewed but with Pet Plan USA they were the only company that actually not only paid on hereditary/congenital illnesses but did not put a cap on it other than your yearly maximum payout. As I said if we planned to have multiple dogs it would be out of our reach but with us soon just having the one I felt I could justify the payment for the 1 dog. Heck I spend more than that buying cigarettes for my husband in a week so I know he doesn't have any room to complain!

[1vizsla]

We use embrace pet insurance (http://www.embracepetinsurance.com) and have been real happy with it. Only one claim so far though but had my money in 14 days with no problems. I know of others that people like too. It all depends on what you want to spend and what type of coverage. Just check that they cover hunting accidents because some don't. We also learned the hard way when my other dogs were diagnosed with a torn CCL and the other one with cancer within a week of each other. Wish we would have had insurance on both of them. The new puppy started with it from day one.

Carla

[Sharon]

I use Petcare for "emergency care" - dog gets lost and gets injured by a car etc. I had a dog get lost once. The person who found the dog took her to the vet. The vet bill was $900. I had paid $20. a month and had all bills covered. ( Dog has to be found by someone other than yourself.)

[allaboutourdogs]

embrace pet insurance

My dog is also enrolled in embrace pet insurance. So far, no complains on their service. I opted for the full coverage plans.

[phermes1]

It's been years, but we enrolled our then-11-12 year old dog in VPI. After a year or so of $20 monthly premiums, we submitted our first claim for about $250-$300, I think. When the claim was processed, VPI basically invented a few maladies that he had not been previously diagnosed with, called them preexisting conditions anyway, and excluded almost every charge. We got a check for $20. We cancelled our policy, and you can guess what my opinion of VPI is.

[jbogacki76]

I purchased a VPI plan with my new pup. I had placed two claims and they were processed fine. I got a check in a few weeks. They do want the exact diagnoses from the vet though. I had my vet fill out the paperwork and submit it to VPI.

The main key with the pet insurance is you need to do it from the start as a pup.

So, far i am pretty happy with them. The two claims i have placed have paid for the monthly fee's for the next 2 years and put money back in my pocket.

[rkappes]

How about ASPCA pet insurance? Looks like they cover spaying and standard vaccines. Thoughts?

[ezzy333]

How about ASPCA pet insurance? Looks like they cover spaying and standard vaccines. Thoughts?

A couple of things to think about. Insurance companies are in business and have to make money to stay in business. Insurance was started as a means to cover any large expense you might have that you couldn't afford to cover in a timely manner.

Since they have to make money the way they do that is to charge people more than they pay out. So I think the question should be would you rather pay the insurance company a monthly payment for somethibng you may never use or would it be smarter to just put a few bucks aside evry month so you have enough in the bank to pay any orinary expense that comes along? Think it is up to you, but regardless of your decision or how many people tell you about all of the things that insurance covered for them, there were a lot of people who paid in and never got a dime back or there were a lot of people who paid in a lot more than they got back. Insurance is not and was never intended to be a money maker for you or to pay the ordinary bills we all have with our dogs.

The more they cover the higher the price or the harder it is to get them to pay.

Ezzy

[Cajun Casey]

How about ASPCA pet insurance? Looks like they cover spaying and standard vaccines. Thoughts?

I think I would discourage supporting anything associated with the ASPCA. There are several good plans out there, some of which build custom policies for dog businesses, so there is plenty to choose from.

[fourtrax]

No insurance here.

[topher40]

I don't get that attached to my animals, notice I didn't say pets. If you cant self insure then why own something you cant afford? I own plenty of animals and each and everyone of them has a price, if they exceed what I am willing to pay they go to that bark park in the sky. No big deal since I am not attached. Call it cruel, or call it knowing my place in the food chain.

[rkappes]

I don't get that attached to my animals, notice I didn't say pets. If you cant self insure then why own something you cant afford? I own plenty of animals and each and everyone of them has a price, if they exceed what I am willing to pay they go to that bark park in the sky. No big deal since I am not attached. Call it cruel, or call it knowing my place in the food chain.

Noticed you said animals and not pets. I agree that dogs are animals. Do you self insure everything? I don't think most people can self insure everything they own. I don't think its a matter of not being able to afford the item its the fact that you want to protect it. I guess I insure everything, put money into savings, and have retirement investments setup. I figure why not pay a little each month to protect what you have and love. For instance, I can pay a little each month for life insurance to make sure that if something were to happen to me my family would be taken care of. Last time I checked two out of two people die so its a good ROI. Your also probably not like most people, I think most people get attached to their dogs, maybe I'm wrong. I guess I don't put a price on companionship but you like you said to each their own.

[smokinsam]

quickcare. 10.95 a month.I personally believe this is a good deal and perfect for my dogs and what they are most likely to get into.
I just purchased this plan because of something that happened to my pup at a benefit trial in november and an issue my buddy is having right now with his brit.
and how much it's costing him.IMHO it's worth the slight peace of mind even if i hopefully don't ever need to use it.


edited to add...50$deductible
foreign body ingestion 2000$
motor vehicle accident 2000$
bone fractures 2000$
poison ingestion 1500$
lacerations 500$
burns 500$
allergic reaction to insect bites/stings 500$
accidental death 500$.

[Winchey]

From my experiences pet insurance isn't that great of a deal. My girlfriend and I got into a fight with a pet insurance company a couple years ago. We had a policy and paid the extra for hip dysplasia. Our dog was diagnosed with hip dysplasia and they declined it because they deemed it as a pre existing condition? Hip dysplasia is genetic and you are born with it so how could they charge people specifically for hip dysplasia when it is always a pre existing condition. Anyways that really pissed me off. Personally if I could find a good pet insurance company that had a plan with say a 1-2k deductible and low premiums that would pay anything I would be tempted.

[AHGSP]

I think it is probably cheaper in the long run of a dogs life, to set aside money for possible Vet Care and always have that money in MY bank account if I shouldn't need it, than to pay into a insurance policy for Vet Care that I may never need and never am able to recoup my investment.

Now on the other hand, I would be very interested in an insurance policy that covers loss or death at a REAL value of a dog and not the cursory $100., 500. or 1,000.00 that most policies will pay out in the event of loss or death. A Stud Dog that has possibly 10's of thousands of dollars invested in him as example. I know it is done almost as a standard in the Horse Racing World; How about in dogs? Anyone know of such policies?

[ezzy333]

Talk to Lloyds of London.

Ezzy